Apex designs and builds loft conversions across Hangleton and the wider BN3 area, where the hipped roof on a pair of semis is the shape we work with most. Hip-to-gable, dormer, Velux, mansard and L-shape, with architectural support kept in house. Ask us for a free, no-obligation quote.
Thinking about a loft conversion in Hangleton? The job here has a signature shape. Most of the housing carries a hipped roof, where the side slopes inward instead of rising to a flat wall, and the volume that hip takes away is exactly the volume a loft room needs. Rebuilding it to a full gable, usually with a rear dormer behind it, is what turns a shallow and awkward roof space into a proper floor with a bedroom and an en suite in it.
The part owners tend not to expect is that the roof is often not yours alone to reshape. A great many houses here were built as matching pairs, so the hip you are changing is half of a shape that was designed as one piece. That does not stop the work, and one side gets converted without the other all the time. It does mean the design has to consider how the pair reads afterwards, and it means the wall between you and next door is part of the job from the outset rather than a formality at the end.
We work right across Hangleton and the surrounding BN3 area, on semis, terraces and bungalows alike, with Brighton & Hove City Council as the planning authority. Our in-house architectural support covers layout planning, structural coordination and technical drawings, and our architectural partners can prepare and submit a planning application or Lawful Development Certificate where one is needed. We build to current Building Regulations throughout.
Which conversion suits a Hangleton home depends on the roof you have and how much of the new floor clears usable head height. Five types come up across BN3, but the hipped roofs that dominate the area push most jobs towards one of them, so the honest answer at a first visit is usually a short one.
A dormer projects out from the roof slope to give a flat ceiling and standing room across a useful width. In Hangleton it is most often the second half of the job rather than the whole of it, added at the rear behind a new gable to square the space off. On a house that already has a gable end it can be the whole answer on its own, and at the rear it will frequently fall within permitted development.
The defining conversion in this part of Hove, and the reason so many Hangleton lofts work at all. The inward-sloping side of the roof is rebuilt vertically to a full gable, recovering the height and floor width the hip removes. It is a visible change to the side of the house, so on a matching pair we look at how the two halves sit together and design accordingly, and because the work runs up to the shared wall the party wall position gets settled before anything starts.
The lightest option, with rooflights set into the existing slope and nothing altered outside beyond the plane of the glazing. We strengthen the structure, insulate and board the floor out. On a hipped Hangleton roof it rarely produces a full extra floor, because the hip has already taken the head height a room needs, and we would rather say so than sell it. Where the roof is generous or the outside has to stay exactly as it is, it remains the right call.
The most substantial of the five, taking a roof slope back to near vertical to maximise floor area and headroom. It almost always needs full planning permission. On the housing that makes up most of this area, a hip-to-gable with a dormer tends to arrive at a comparable room by a much simpler route, so a mansard is worth pricing against that before design time is committed. Test the position with Brighton & Hove City Council first.
Works where a house has a two-storey rear projection to build onto, with a dormer added to both that projection and the main roof to form an L-shaped upstairs. Fewer Hangleton houses have that shape than in the older parts of the city, so it is not the usual answer here. Where the projection does exist it gives more than a standard dormer without the planning weight of a mansard.
The best conversion is the one your existing structure and your planning position will actually support, so we design around the house rather than from a template. On a hipped Hangleton roof that means being clear early about how much of the floor keeps usable head height once the hip comes off, because that single number decides whether you get a double bedroom with an en suite or one modest room. We set it out at the first visit, not at drawing stage.
We are based in Worthing and along this stretch of coast constantly, so a site visit or a call-out mid-build is easy to arrange. Hip-to-gable work on suburban semis is some of our most routine work, and we know the general planning picture under Brighton & Hove City Council, including where the position tightens around the small protected pocket at the old heart of the area. You get a local team on site and a crew that treats your home as somewhere people are living.
Level floors, plumb walls, clean plaster lines and joinery that fits: our team and specialist partners work to a standard that holds up close to. On a new gable the outside counts as much as the inside, because brickwork, tiling and verge details are what the street sees, and matching them to the existing house is the difference between a conversion that reads as part of the building and one that announces itself. Everything is built to current Building Regulations, with your Building Control inspector coordinated at the right stages. Completed projects are in the gallery below.
A Hangleton loft runs through six stages, first visit to handover. Our in-house architectural support carries design and any planning application; the building is ours. Two items remain yours and we prefer to flag them at the start: Party Wall notices, which carry more weight on a semi than most people expect, and appointing Building Control.
We come to your Hangleton home, measure floor to ridge, look at the roof structure and work out where a staircase could land. On a hipped roof we also work out what the space becomes once the hip is rebuilt, because the before and after figures are very different and only one of them is worth planning around. An honest view first, design later. No cost, no obligation.
Existing drawings can be priced as they stand. Without them, our in-house architectural support works up the layout and the technical drawings any application or certificate calls for. On a semi that work includes deciding how the new gable meets the other half of the pair, which belongs on paper rather than on site. Quote and outline programme come through with the drawings.
If an application or a Lawful Development Certificate is required, our architectural partners handle preparing and submitting it to Brighton & Hove City Council for you. A good many Hangleton jobs require neither, and the certificate is still worth having on file. Check where your own address stands, and get Party Wall requirements in front of a surveyor or architect before anything starts: those notices sit with you by law and no builder can serve them.
Site work starts once consents, drawings and structural calculations are settled, and the roof is kept weatherproof from the moment it is opened. The programme length follows the conversion type and the property, with an indicative one supplied at quote stage. On a hip-to-gable the new gable goes up early, so the finished shape of the house appears sooner here than on most conversions.
You appoint Building Control, either through the council or an approved inspector, and you book its visits. Each stage gets flagged to you well before it is ready to close up, so nothing goes behind plasterboard unseen. The detail an inspector will want a proper look at on a semi is the sound and fire performance where the work meets the shared wall.
Once the final inspection is signed off we hand over. Keep the completion certificate with any planning, certificate or party wall paperwork alongside your property records. On a semi the party wall documentation is the part people mislay and later wish they had kept.
Finished projects from across Sussex, including hip-to-gable work on houses much like the ones here. Describe your roof and we will point you to the nearest match.
General context for Hangleton homeowners, not legal advice. Confirm the position for your property with Brighton & Hove City Council, and where relevant with an architect, planning consultant or party wall surveyor, before work starts.
Planning authority. Brighton & Hove City Council handles Hangleton addresses.
Permitted development. Across the residential majority of the area many conversions proceed under it, subject to the usual limits on volume, position and window design and to any Article 4 Direction.
Conservation area. A small one covers the old heart of Hangleton around the historic church and manor house, and the few properties inside it are more tightly controlled.
Listed buildings. Both of those buildings are listed, and listed building consent is separate from planning permission.
Hipped roofs. Rebuilding a hip to a gable changes the outline of the house from the side, so on a matching pair the design is judged on how the pair reads as well as on your own elevation.
Party wall. On semi-detached and terraced homes, serving any Party Wall notice is the homeowner’s legal responsibility and cannot be done by the builder.
Hangleton sits within our regular working area, alongside the neighbouring parts of Hove and the wider city, which keeps visits easy to book and the build moving once it is under way.
Start with a free site visit. We measure up, assess the roof structure and head height, and tell you what a hip-to-gable delivers on your roof specifically rather than on a typical one. Our in-house architectural support can then take on drawings and any application. Before the build starts you will want your planning position confirmed and a surveyor briefed on Party Wall requirements.
Apex works on loft conversions across Worthing, Brighton & Hove and the wider West Sussex coast. The pages below give a closer look at
the housing, planning and conversion types we see in each area. If your town or village isn’t listed, we likely still cover it, get in
touch for a quick check.
The questions Hangleton homeowners put to us most, answered plainly. If yours is not below, send it through the contact form.
The type of conversion, the property itself and the consents involved all move the timescale. Rooflight jobs finish soonest; dormer, hip-to-gable, L-shape and mansard each take progressively longer. The standard Hangleton scheme, a hip-to-gable with a rear dormer, lands mid-range and includes a run of external work that a plain dormer avoids entirely. Our part of the programme comes with the quote as an indicative timeline.
Frequently not. Across the residential majority of Hangleton a hip-to-gable with a rear dormer can fall within permitted development, subject to the national limits on volume, position and window design and to any Article 4 Direction, and a Lawful Development Certificate is worth obtaining as proof. The exceptions are the small conservation area at the old heart of the area and any listed building, where rights are usually tighter and a full application to Brighton & Hove City Council is more likely. A mansard normally needs permission wherever it is. Where an application or certificate is needed, our architectural partners can prepare and submit it. Building Regulations apply either way and are separate from planning.
Most households do. Work happens above the existing ceiling for the bulk of the programme and the roof is weatherproofed as soon as it is opened. A hip-to-gable does have a noisier external phase while the hip comes off and the gable goes up, so that is the stretch to plan around, and there will be louder days when steels go in and when the stair opening is cut.
Conversions are generally reckoned among the stronger home improvements for return, though what you actually see back turns on the property, the standard of finish and the state of the local market when you sell. The typical Hangleton outcome is a three-bedroom house becoming a four-bedroom one with a bathroom upstairs. Buyers here recognise that step immediately, which helps. An estate agent’s read is worth having alongside ours.
Roughly 2.2 to 2.3 metres, measured before any work begins from the top of the ceiling joists to the underside of the ridge, since the new floor build-up and the roof lining both take a share. What counts on a hipped roof is not the peak figure but the proportion of floor still holding that height after the hip is rebuilt as a gable, which is a much more useful number. We take both at the free visit.
As a broad steer: a hipped semi, terrace or bungalow usually points to a hip-to-gable paired with a rear dormer, and that is the most common answer here by a distance. A house that already has a gable end often needs only the dormer. Rooflights suit a roof that is already generous, or a property where the outside has to stay as it is. An L-shape applies only where there is a two-storey rear projection. We will confirm at the free site visit.
Yes, always, and it is the approval that applies regardless of planning. It governs the structure, usually steels and strengthened joists; escape routes, fire doors and alarms; stair headroom; insulation; and how well sound is kept between the loft and the rest of the house. Two things get extra scrutiny on a Hangleton semi: performance at the shared wall, and the thermal standard of a gable that has just been built from scratch. Booking Building Control and its inspections is down to you, via the council or an approved inspector.
